Lighten up with these flavorful meals

Healthy resolutions are hard to keep in place. One way is to make a dish that has many familiar elements, all cooked in a way that doesn’t add up to much fat or calories.

Here, a warm salad of nutty brown rice, edamame, and poached chicken is brightened with citrus dressing. Simmer brown basmati in a heavy-bottomed pot. Whisk together a lemony vinaigrette, and toss the dressing with the warm grains, soy beans, and scallions. Top with chicken breasts cooked slowly in a flavorful stock. (Recipe: Poached chicken and brown rice salad with lemon vinaigrette)
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Karoline Boehm Goodnick

Brown rice salad with roasted root vegetables

Gently saute shallots, garlic, and chilies in flavor-packed peanut oil. Spend a few minutes wilting kale, and toss everything together with leftover rice and roasted vegetables. Brighten the plate and your palate with a heavy dose of lime and cilantro. (Recipe: Brown rice salad with roasted root vegetables)
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Karoline Boehm Goodnick for The Boston Globe

Poached salmon with peas and white wine sauce

In this dish, white wine and aromatics enhance a flavorful poaching liquid for skinless, boneless salmon. Once the fish has cooked, reduce some stock, and swirl in butter with fresh peas and garden herbs. (Recipe: Poached salmon with peas and white wine sauce)
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Karoline Boehm Goodnick

Root vegetable curry with brown rice

The best way to prepare root vegetables — and to warm the house — is to roast them together. A long, slow stay in the oven gives the roots delicious caramelized edges. To ensure even cooking times and a pretty finished platter, cut each vegetable differently, into slices, sticks, wedges, and planks. Stir together a simple curry and spoon your veggie supper over brown rice. (Recipe: Root vegetable curry with brown rice)
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Karoline Boehm Goodnick For the Boston Globe

Kale and white bean salad with chickpeas

Lacinato kale, also known as Tuscan, dinosaur, or black kale, has a hearty texture often tenderized with long cooking times. For salads, remove the hard, center vein and thinly slice the leaves. The bumpy surface traps dirt and sand so be sure to wash well. Toss greens with seasoned white beans and serve at room temperature. (Recipe: Kale and white bean salad with chickpeas)
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Sally Pasley Vargas

Eggplant-mozzarella stacks

For this casserole, eggplant rounds are cooked under the broiler, then stacked, rather than layered, in a baking dish with cheese and sauce. (Recipe: Eggplant-mozzarella stacks)
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Karoline Boehm Goodnick for The Boston Globe

Spanish chickpeas with spinach and eggs

These chickpeas are flavored with a basic sofrito — onion and garlic cooked in olive oil — then combined with greens. Here, the dish is a more substantial meal, finished with hard-cooked eggs. (Recipe: Spanish chickpeas with spinach and eggs)
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SALLY P. VARGAS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

Baked tofu with vegetable stir-fry

Baking tofu is a terrific and healthful alternative to frying. Marinate it in a gingery soy and chili sauce mixture, spread it on a baking sheet, sprinkle with scallions, peanuts, and ginger, and send it into the oven. Thirty minutes later you have tofu with crisp edges and a caramelized topping. While it bakes, stir-fry carrots, cabbage, asparagus, and watercress and set both over wide rice noodles. (Recipe: Baked tofu with vegetable stir-fry)
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Karoline Boehm Goodnick for The Boston Globe

Roast salmon with tomato-olive relish

Thankfully, the season of excess is always followed by more healthful dining. With salmon on the center of the plate that’s an easy and deliciou accomplishment. The fish needs little fussing over to taste good. Your job is to make sure not to overcook it and add an intriguing garnish. Here, the fish is served with a relish to offset the richness of the flesh and offer a touch of acidity. Mix chopped tomatoes, olives, and lemon juice to make a garnish that adds just the right amount of contrast without overpowering the fish. (Recipe: Roast salmon with tomato-olive relish)
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Sally Pasley Vargas

Chicken and rice bowls

Saute mushrooms, add a few handfuls of baby spinach, cooked chicken, vegetables, and rice, and reheat them together to serve chicken and rice bowls — an almost instant supper. No convenience foods necessary. (Recipe: Chicken and rice bowls)
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Sheryl Julian/Globe Staff

Hake with sliced tomato ‘crust’ and lemon-caper dressing

Hake is cod’s poor cousin, and as a result, lesser known and not as expensive. It’s plenty sweet and flaky, with a little more chew than cod, if you cook it protected by vegetables or parchment paper. We use sliced tomatoes grown in Backyard Farms’ greenhouses in Madison, Maine. Look for these or other fruits that are on the vine, larger than cherry tomatoes but smaller than sauce tomatoes. When field tomatoes come into season, use those (whatever size you have). Whisk a lemony caper dressing to spoon over the roast fish. (Recipe: Hake with sliced tomato ‘crust’ and lemon-caper dressing)
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Food Styling/Sheryl Julian; Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe

Spaghetti with sauteed shrimp and sugar snaps

When you buy raw shrimp in their shells, you can also make a flavorful broth — a taste of the sea that’s better than bottled clam juice. Simply simmer the shells in water for 10 minutes, strain them, and you have the basis for a beautiful sauce or stew. While the shells cook for this pasta sauce, saute shrimp, then sugar snaps, and finish by stirring a little creme fraiche into the mixture, which gives it a richer taste. Put on a pot of spaghetti and in the time it takes to cook it, your work is done. (Recipe: Spaghetti with sauteed shrimp and sugar snaps)
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Karoline Boehm Goodnick for The Boston Globe

Red quinoa salad with black beans

A stand-alone salad for lunch or dinner on-the-go, this red quinoa with black beans can be wrapped individually in large flour tortillas or used as the base for baking fish. In either case, splash some hot sauce on the grains if the heat from the chili isn’t enough. Red quinoa is darker than more typical white quinoa; use either one in this dish. (Recipe: Red quinoa salad with black beans)
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The bright greens under the fish are sauteed leeks and escarole mixed with roasted fennel and asparagus, and at the very end, fresh or frozen peas. I’ve been making the greens for a couple of weeks and they’re good fresh the first night and even reheated the second.—Sheryl Julian, DishingNext

Sheryl Julian

Beet and feta salad

Roast the striped and goldens together, but separate the reds from the others or you’ll get all red in the end. Their bright juices stain everything they come in contact with, including your hands and your countertop. This array of red, white, and golden beets is topped with a vinaigrette, a generous sprinkle of feta, red onion, and olives. If you make it today, it will taste better tomorrow. Best of all on Day 3. (Recipe: Beet and feta salad)
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It’s the time of year when a pot of chili is welcome, and you can make a satisfying dish without beef. You do need beans, of course, and corn, zucchini, tomatoes, bell pepper, and canned tomatoes. Add lots of seasonings to heighten the flavors: ancho chili powder, ground cumin, and dried oregano. The vegetarian version takes just over half an hour to simmer. Garnish the top with sour cream, scallions, and cilantro leaves. (Recipe: Vegetarian chili)
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Layer potatoes, onions, and bell peppers in a baking dish and send them to the oven to soften. Place the fish on top, cover with buttery crumbs, and bake briefly. The fish juices soak into the potatoes to give them lots of flavor. While it cooks, steam escarole with garlic and lemon in a little water, just until it’s bright green. (Recipe: Baked haddock on potatoes with braised escarole)
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Sally Vargas for The Boston Globe

Kasha pilaf with mushrooms

The nutty buckwheat groat called kasha is an Old World grain known well in Eastern Europe. In supermarkets, it’s shelved in the kosher or international section. Like other bland but nutritious grains, kasha needs a lift. The grains are already roasted, but this method of toasting the kasha over medium heat after mixing it with egg is important to keeping the taste nutty and the grains separate. (Recipe: Kasha pilaf with mushrooms)
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Sally Vargas for The Boston Globe

Warm wheat berry salad with butternut squash and miso-ginger dressing

Now that many families have warmed up to whole-wheat toast and brown rice, it might be time to venture into heartier grains, such as quinoa, barley, and wheat berries. Wheat berries and vegetables in a hearty bowl offer an array of tastes and textures all at once. In the brown berries you’re getting the bran, germ, and endosperm of the wheat. As for the vegetables, the best this time of year are wintry roots, squashes, and leafy greens. These bowls are filled with nutty, chewy wheat berries, cubes of sweet butternut squash, caramelized onions, hardy kale, and a bracing miso ginger dressing. Top with a sprinkle of sliced almonds for a delicate crunch. (Recipe: Warm wheat berry salad with butternut squash and miso-ginger dressing)
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Karoline Boehm Goodnick

Roasted eggplant banh mi

In a hot oven, eggplant cooks without soaking up excess oil, and it’s ready to absorb spoonfuls of a flavorful Asian dipping sauce. With soy sauce, fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, chili-garlic sauce, and fresh ginger, the sauce combines sweet, salty, and sour tastes in one bowl. Add some to the mayonnaise to season it, and stir in carrot matchsticks, cucumber, jalapeno, and scallions. Vietnamese bakeries make special baguettes that have lots of crust and not too much crumb, or use a crusty French loaf, and you’ll understand why this Southeast Asian classic is the sandwich of the moment. (Recipe: Roasted eggplant banh mi)
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The bean salad offers a low-cost, high-protein, high-fiber meal with a touch of oil to marry the ingredients. Set the table outside your own villa and enjoy the countryside. (Recipe: White bean salad with chicken)
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Here, fillets of bluefish are heaped with a crunchy paprika-scented panko topping (use sweet paprika for a mild mixture; hot paprika for something more fiery; smoked paprika for an element of surprise). Fine, crisp Japanese breadcrumbs, mixed with a little olive oil and garlic, are a nice counter to the dark meat. Pack the crumb topping on the skin side of the fish or on the flesh side, in which case you can leave the skin in the pan when you remove it. If you’re serving first-time bluefish eaters, crumb the flesh side. Skin is only for the initiated. (Recipe: Bluefish with paprika-crumb topping)
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